


in dim light

by sentichefuoripiove



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/M, post s15e08, probably won't be canon-compliant, stuck in an elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 16:11:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16726659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentichefuoripiove/pseuds/sentichefuoripiove
Summary: -"...I mean, this situation is just as private, and the lighting is kinda similar”, she chuckles.-“You think I should only try to have a go at you in dim light?”What would (probably not) happen in that elevator after the end of Blowin' in the Wind.Because "stuck in an elevator" is only the best romantic trope, and we are all so glad Shonda finally blessed us with it.





	in dim light

“We’re stuck”, Meredith sighs, starts to make her way toward the back of the elevator, while Andrew crosses the space in the opposite direction, tries to push buttons that are very clearly non working. He glances at Meredith as she starts sliding down the wall of the elevator, sitting with her legs outstretched in front of her. She seems oddly calm.  
“Are you ok, Dr Grey?”, he asks.  
“Sure I am. …are you?”. Meredith can’t help but notice the way his hands are balled up into fists, or the nervous way he is locking his jaw.  
He leaves out a huff, takes a few steps before coming down to sit next to Meredith, shoulder by shoulder, legs crossed.  
“Yeah, I’m fine… I mean…”, he stammers.  
“I know, but this happens all the time, nothing to be worried about”.  
“This shouldn’t happen in a hospital. People need to get places! This is dangerous!”. Meredith chuckles, and he turns his head to look at her, annoyed: “Why are you laughing at me?”  
“I’m sorry, it’s nothing. It’s just… this isn’t by far the most dangerous thing I had happen to me in this hospital”.  
“Really? Like what?”, he still looks annoyed.  
“Well… Once I put my arm in the chest cavity of a patient who had a bomb inside of him, and they had to disarm it while I was still there”  
“YOU WHAT??”, he yells, pushing himself off the wall a little to fully look at her in disbelief.  
“I had to give birth to my son during a power outage just like this one”. He doesn’t respond to that, just stares with wide eyes, jaw dropped.  
“And I assume you know about the shooting from years ago”  
“I- …I have h-… yeah”, he says, returns to stare at the hands in his lap.  
“Not to mention all the things that happened on the job but not at the hospital, like…”  
“…you don’t have to talk about the plane crash if you don’t want to”, he interrupts. He still isn’t looking up. “I know about it, Dr Robbins talked about it sometimes. She said you lost your sister. I never brought it up because I didn’t feel it was my place to say, but I’m sorry. From what I could gather she seemed great.”  
“She was”, Meredith smiles reassuringly, “She really was. Mark too.”. She is quiet for a moment.  
“…God, you would have really liked them both. And Mark would have loved you, he would have made you his protegé. You’re exactly his type, you know?”  
“Mark? That’s… Sophia’s dad, wasn’t he?”  
“He.. uh, yes, I guess he was” she replies, uncertain.  
Andrew is thrown for a moment by the change of tone in her voice.  
“I’m sorry, Dr Grey, did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean to-…”  
“You’re fine, DeLuca. It’s just that… he was my husband’s best friend.”. She is suddenly quiet again.

(Oh, right.)

Andrew moves a couple inches away from her. He was loving the proximity right until that moment, but all of a sudden he feels like he is invading a space that is no longer empty, as someone else is now in the room with them.  
They stay silent for a couple of minutes, the whirring of the emergency lights the only sound in the small space. He doesn’t dare to look at her. 

(Dammit! Did you really have to say everything to her like that? You are not in a freaking rom-com, Andrew, God! And that kiss?? Why?? Being drunk isn’t an excuse, and you should have known better, and you’ll probably have to find another job as soon as you get out of this elevator. If Karev put you in the hospital over Jo what do you think he’ll do once he finds out you kissed Meredith Grey? Uh? Plus, he is also Chief now, he will fire you and you will never find another job again, and…)

Meredith is laughing again.  
“What?”, he says, surprised.  
“Nothing”, she responds, but she is still laughing.  
“What?”, he doesn’t know if he should laugh too or start to get irritated.  
“Mark and Lexie loved each other.”  
“Ok…”  
“They weren’t exactly together when they died, but… they loved each other, and were in a relationship for a long time.”  
“Right. And…?” There is a question in his tone.  
“When they met, Lexie had just started her internship, and Mark was older than I am now.”  
“…Oh”. He gets it now. Or at least, he hopes he is getting it.  
“Yeah. Everyone was against it at the beginning. Mark most of all. He didn’t want to harm her reputation on the job, and there was this whole thing with Derek, and…”  
“Hey, listen, don’t do this ok? “ Andrew pushes himself off the wall, still on the ground but facing the opposite direction, so that he could look at her. “We don’t need to do this now if you don’t want to. I heard you when you said you needed to think and I understand, really. I’m not pushing.”  
“Well, we are stuck here, what am I supposed to do if not think? And I can’t help it if I think out loud and you just happen to be here to listen.”

She smiles.

He beams at her.

“You sure?”  
“I’m sure”  
“Okay”, he grins.  
He straightens his back, puffs up his chest. “So…”, he says, his tone bright and cheery as if they had just met for coffee, “wanna talk about the week you’re having? I hear it has been pretty insane”  
She bursts into the kind of laugher that reaches the eyes.

(She has such a pretty laugh, and you’re the one that made her laugh! …Ugh, shut up, Andrew, don’t be such a sap!)

“Well, actually, there is not much I can’t talk about. Doctor-patient confidentiality.”  
“Alright, some things you can talk about then?”  
“…there’s the whole thing with my dad, but that kind of baggage would probably be a third-date kind of conversation.”

As soon as she realizes what she said, she freezes.

He freezes.

“What, more heavy than they diffused a bomb around me, and I have more half-sisters than I can count kind of baggage?”, he tries, smiling, and sees her relax a little.

(Nice save, Andrew)

“Let’s just say it’s a different kind of baggage. We never had a relationship, and the time I tried to offer it to him he didn’t take it. If I decided to go, it would be like building the entire thing from scratch, and I don’t know if I can handle the uncertainty of it working out different than what I expected”  
“But isn’t it all true for all relationships? You can’t expect things to be perfect and easy from the get-go, but more often than not if you give people a chance they might surprise you.”  
She doesn’t say anything in return, but he can tell she is thinking about his words. 

They fall into silence again, but it’s not uncomfortable. He starts to play with the hem of his scrubs, and when his hand bumps her leg he briefly touches it to apologize. She doesn’t look at him, but stills his hand, pleading him to stop fidgeting.  
He rests his hand on his knee, palm up, and it takes a second to register in the darkness, but he sees her lifting her arm, placing her hand mid air, hovering for a second, right above his. 

She hasn’t said a word.

He doesn’t dare speak.

They are still facing each other. She is slowly (why is she moving so slowly, is she trying to kill you?) lowering her hand, a single finger barely brushing his inner wrist, and there is no way that even with this little contact she can’t tell his pulse is going 100 miles a minute. She starts to drag her finger across his palm and up his middle finger and he swears he could spontaneously combust right there.

They don’t move, sitting in the dark, the pads of their fingers the only thing connecting them. They aren’t looking at each other but at their hands, as if they are expecting sparks to erupt from that spot at any moment.  
“Why are you calling me Dr Grey again?”, her voice is so low that for a moment he thinks he has imagined it.  
“I’m sorry, what?”, he straightens himself, and the connection is broken.  
“I said: you called me Meredith, uh…. before, and then you went back to Dr Grey, why?”  
“Why did I call you Meredith or why am I not doing it now?”, he smirks.  
“The second one, I suppose. I mean, this situation is just as private, and the lighting is kinda similar”, she chuckles.  
“You think I should only try to have a go at you in dim light?”, he says, amused by her nonsense.  
“That probably would probably mean you wouldn’t have to look at my wrinkles”  
“Oh, shut up! Don’t try and pretend you don’t know how beautiful you are.” His tone is light, playing off of her self deprecation, but maybe it makes her blush a little.  
“Well, that’s not a problem you ever had with any of your previous girlfriends”  
“Well, none on my previous girlfriends had your wit or your mind, either, so I think I can stand the trade-off.”

They hold each other’s gaze for what feels like minutes, and he thinks he can see resolve in her eyes, as she pushes herself forward for a second, toward him, the briefest glance at his lips.  
He also sees her settling back to the wall, finally breaking eye contact.  
“I’m glad you didn’t do it”, he tells her.  
“What didn’t I do?”  
“Whatever you were thinking of doing. I’m glad you didn’t. I want you to take your time if that’s what you need, not make life-altering decisions just because a storm stuck us together.”

She looks impressed with him.

(That look it’s starting to feel good)

She opens her mouth to say something, when the lights come back on and for a second they are both blinded. He helps her up, (ok, your hands are touching again, and you know this will be the only thing you’ll think about for the rest of the week) just as the elevator starts working again, and they step out of it at the same time, almost getting knocked over by Helm running down the corridor. 

“Thank you”, she says, “ for not letting me do was I was going to do.”  
“Don’t mention it.”, his smile bright and open.  
“So… should we go save a life?”  
“Yea-…Yeah! We should! Lead the way!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This is the first fic I've published in english, and I think I really like it! It has a lot of dialogue, which I rarely write, so I hope you like it too!
> 
> (Mark and Lexie propelling a story forward even from the afterlife is everything this show needs and i will not apologise for it, lol)
> 
> Comments are always welcome!


End file.
